Thursday, July 31, 2008

The next day on our little movie theater tour we traveled to the town of Lamar, Missouri. This town is known as the place where Harry S. Truman was born and you can take a tour of his house. Yes, we made a point to check that out, but our true reason was to visit the town’s two movie theaters - Plaza Theater and the Barco Drive-In.

The Barco is another drive-in frozen in time and again we watched a double feature and another viewing of the Hulk. (Glad we liked the Hulk)

Like the 66 Drive-In in Carthage this one is also well cared for and it was a pleasure visiting with the friendly folks who run this gem.

Tomorrow we’ll take a look at the Plaza Theater also located in Lamar.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

For years I’ve wanted to see a movie at the 66 Drive-In Theater in Carthage, Missouri and last week we finally did. Located on Route 66 this beauty of a drive-in is one of the best in the “Show-Me” state.

It was a double feature night with Wall-E and the Hulk playing on the really really big screen.

This drive-in still has the original playground in front of the screen.

Next to the consession stand is this cool plastic sofa. I wanted to take it home with me!

A classic National Anthem film starts the evening of entertainment.

The best part of the night was the intermission complete with countdown clock and vintage snack bar films.

The 66 Drive-In started in 1949 and was restored in 1997. If you're traveling the mother road and end up in Carthage, Missouri be sure to see a movie at the 66 Drive-In!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

I just learned the sad news that Creig Flessel passed away on the July 17. Flessel was an amazing cartoonist who started out in the comic book biz back in the 1930's. The comic character he’s best known for is the hero with the gas mask and fedora known as the Sandman.

Creig Flessel was a guest at the 1994 Kansas City Comic Convention and this wonderful man made many new fans from telling stories from the comics’ golden age to drawing sketches of Sandman. I was really impressed that all the money made from his sketches he donated to charity. The price for a sketch - whatever a person felt like giving. This is the sketch he did for me and it’s one of my favorite sketches in my collection.

Creig Flessel was blessed with a long and fruitful life and I’m sure he blessed many along the way.

Monday, July 14, 2008

A few old time readers of this blog might remember a crazy 2006 post of an epic 80's battle between two cardboard robots. Hold on to your helmet hair ‘cause we just found some lost film footage of the first cardboard robot battle. Maybe not as exciting as the recently found lost footage of the famous 1927 movie Metropolis. That movie also had a robot, but it wasn't cardboard. Still, this is pretty darn special for the Neato Coolville archives.

A little background before we roll film. During those early awkward teenage years my best buddy Jeff and I started a new tradition - cardboard robot battles! We constructed robots out of cardboard and each robot had a bridge complete with captain and crew inside the head. A few days after July 4th the battle would begin using fireworks as ammunition. Whoever lost their head (not ours, the cardboard robot’s) they were the losers.

And there you have it - the first cardboard robot battle. My robot, the one with the Styrofoam front is on the right and Jeff’s is on the left. We used all kinds of fireworks as ammunition. The best weapons were the large bottle rockets, the ones with the plastic nose cone. We removed the nose cone and replaced it with two nails. These baddies were shot out of the robot’s cannons (toilet and paper towel rolls) and would stick into the opponent’s robot inflicting some major damage. (Hey kid’s don’t try this at home as it will bring grief and worry to your mother. My mom got her first strand of gray hair that day) For this first historic battle - Jeff’s robot won. A dreaded nailhead rocket blew my robot’s head clean off.

Amazing, but my robot’s captain managed to survive, as we found him on the ground a few feet away from the smouldering head. I guess the captain's command chair doubled as an ejector chair. I’ve kept him all these years for a souvenir.

Here's a photo of our robots from the final battle and you can read the 2006 post by following this link.

Now if I can just find photos or video of the only battle that I won. Jeff was the cardboard robot king!

Monday, July 07, 2008

We had a fun time celebrating the 4th of July (on the 5th) with family at Powell Gardens in Kingsville, Missouri just about 30 miles outside of Kansas City. Powell is the perfect setting for a picnic and fireworks display. The Lee’s Summit Symphony set the mood with music including the Raiders of the Lost Ark theme which pleased this fanboy’s ears.

Powell Gardens is always a wonderful place to visit and especially now during Chapunga - an exhibit of stone sculptures from Africa.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

I just unearthed an old collection that I kind of forgot about - my soda bottle cap collection. All are pre-1970 and are cork lined. You can view the collection of more than 100 caps by clicking here. I love some of the cool fonts and neat graphics.

You know bottle cap collecting is a super fun collecting idea for kids. For the most part you can find them cheap at antique stores and flea markets. Search ebay for 'em and you'll see you can buy scads of 'em for pocket change with a few exceptions for the rare caps and ones with snazzy graphics. I would think kids would have fun saving caps from modern soda bottles too. There seems to be a lot of brands on the market.